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THE MODERN 

MANUFACTURE OF 

WRITING PAPER 




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HE MODERN 

MANUFACTURE 

i&^D OF CT^D 

^WRITING PAPER 




A STORY CONCERNING 
THE MODERN PROCESSES OF MANUFACTURING 
AN ANCIENT PRODUCT, WITH SOME SIDE-LIGHTS 

* ON ITS HISTORY 



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V 




COMPLIMENTS^" 

THE EASTERN 

MANUFACTURING 

COMPANY 

501 FIFTH AVE. NEW YORK 

SMills at Bangor 

and Lincoln, 

ZMaiw, 



Gift 

Author 



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THE 

MODERN MANUFACTURE OF 

WRITING PAPER 




.RIMITIVE man first 
wrote on rocks. He 
used a crude, sharp- 
pointed instrument 
to illustrate familiar 
objects or to convey 
information. Rocks were sufficient 
for such simple purposes, but grad- 
ually, with the development of the 
race, man needed a more conve- 
nient medium on which to express 
his thoughts. Had he been rightly 
aware of it, he must have seen, 
here and there, the original paper- 
maker, the wasp, at work busily 
building its nest of pulp; but there 
is no record that man was wise 



enough to go to the wasp for in- 
struction and borrow a useful hint. 
Instead, at a very ancient date, in 
widely separated quarters of the 
globe, he began to use various 
other materials — stone, clay, bark, 
papyrus, skins of animals, metal, 
wood, parchment, linen and wax. 
But paper, once discovered, rapid- 
ly outstripped them all, and since 
then human progress and civiliza- 
tion have been bound up with the 
art and science of paper-making. 
In this day and age, paper plays 
a vital part in each of the great 
activities of life — cultural, busi- 
ness, and social. Of course, the 




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oldest known civilization in the 
world is that of China, and the 
Chinese are credited with origi- 
nating the manufacture of paper, 
which they made of silk waste. 

IN ANCIENT EGYPT 

However, the earliest material re- 
sembling modern paper was made 
by the Egyptians from papyrus. 
An account of the manufacture 
of writing material from papyrus 
has been given us by the Roman 
historian, Pliny, whose description 
of the process forms an interesting 
comparison in the light of modern 
methods of manufacture. Accord- 
ing to Pliny, the stem of the pa- 
pyrus was cut into longitudinal 
strips, those from the center being, 
of course, the broadest and there- 
fore the most valuable. These 
strips were laid on a board, side by 
side, until the desired width was 
obtained; across them another 
layer of shorter strips was laid at 
right angles. The two layers thus 



formed were then soaked in sacred 
water of the Nile. It is probable 
that they were joined either by 
the juice of the plant or by a thin 
gum. After soaking, they were 
pressed and dried in the sun. Any 
inequalities in the surface were 
removed by the use of an instru- 
ment made of ivory or shell. 
Newly made papyrus was white 
and flexible — not as we see it 
carefully preserved in museums, 
brown with age and so brittle as 
to break at the touch. 

It is a far cry from these slow 
and laborious methods of the 
Egyptians to present-day methods 
as exemplified in the great mills of 
the Eastern Manufacturing Com- 
pany; it is a far cry from the hand- 
pressed sheet of papyrus to the 
daily output of crisp, fine-surfaced 
Systems Bond, uniform year in 
and year out, with the water- 
marked sign of quality in every 
sheet. And in what this vast dif- 
ference implies — the invention, 




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ONLY by source-control of 
raw materials can a man- 
ufacturing plant become 
firmly established and its product 
be uniformly reliable. Here are 
shown a rag-sorting scene and one 
of the piles of four-foot logs cut 
from the Eastern Manufacturing 
Company's own sprucelands. 



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the enterprise, the diligent labor 
and craftsmanship of centuries- 
lies the whole romance of paper- 
making as we trace it briefly. 

PAPER APPEARS IN EUROPE 

By the Chinese the art of mak- 
ing paper from silk waste, or from 
the fibrous inner bark of mulberry 
trees and the fiber of the cotton- 
plant, reduced to a pulp, was made 
known to the Hindus and the Per- 
sians. In 704 A.D. a force of 
nomadic Arabs conquered the 
Persian city of Samarkand, where 
a paper manufactory had been es- 
tablished, and learned there the 
use of the material. From this time 
paper became available for the 
rest of the known world, the first 
paper manufactured in Europe 
being made by the Moors, in Spain. 
Strange to say, the Moors seem 
to have overlooked the possibili- 
ties of one raw material for their 
industry, although it grew wild, 
literally under their very feet. 



This was esparto, a tough grass 
found in abundance in Spain and 
in the Barbary States of North 
Africa. Years later, this esparto 
grass was extensively used in 
the manufacturing of papers for 
printing purposes, especially in 
England, for an Englishman first 
discovered the process — but it 
never became an important ele- 
ment in the making of fine writ- 
ing papers. 

Meanwhile, knowledge of the 
art of paper-making quickly spread 
from Spain to France and Eng- 
land. Paper mills were established 
throughout Europe and the indus- 
try flourished. Paper, superseding 
in general use both parchment 
and vellum, was hailed with de- 
light as a new discovery. During 
the new industry's period of de- 
velopment, cotton and linen rags, 
by-products of textile manufac- 
ture, were its sole dependence; 
and, indeed, even today they form 
an essential ingredient in making 




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ONLY the fibers of the 
wood proper — and not 
the bark — are suitable 
for the manufacturing of the sul- 
phite pulp. Here we see the logs, 
after the bark has been softened 
in a huge vat of boiling water, 
on their way to the drum barker. 



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writing paper of high quality, 
where beauty of finish is desired 
in combination with durability. 

MACHINERY BRINGS NEW 
METHODS AND MATERIALS 

Modern paper, like the ancient 
product, at first was made entirely 
by hand. Changes, however, 
followed quickly in so important 
an industry — changes in both 
method and material. Since 1820 
paper made by machinery has sup' 
planted hand-made paper, except 
for special purposes. Although 
cotton and linen sufficed for cen- 
turies before 1820 as raw material, 
and although the textile element 
— the rag-content — has always 
retained its important place in 
first quality writing papers, the 
tremendous demand for paper has 
made it necessary to consider the 
problem of quantity production. 
After many experiments with veg- 
etable fibers, the idea of making 
paper from the readily available 



supply of wood came to the fore 
early in the nineteenth century. 
Tree trunks — thousands of them 
at hand! Their new utility and 
value were soon recognized. The 
woods now generally used are 
spruce, hemlock, pine, and poplar: 
of all these, spruce is best for 
writing papers of quality. 



CRAFTSMANSHIP 

Exact as it is, modern manufac- 
ture of paper is not only a science; 
it is also an art. Fine paper is not 
made by formula alone; it is the 
result of expert human knowledge 
and judgment. Difficulties en- 
countered by the paper-maker are 
so many and so varied that the 
wonder is that papers of standard 
qualities are produced over and 
over again. Different woods pro- 
duce different results; even the 
same kind of wood, if brought 
from different parts of the coun- 
try, is apt to show changes in its 
known characteristics. Further- 




c*[8]£> 




BLEACHING the sulphite 
pulp is a process that 
must be very carefully per- 
formed. Too much bleach weak- 
ens the fibers — too little will not 
effect the desired shade. Cer- 
tainty concerning the exact qual- 
ity of the sulphite pulp, then, is 
a great aid in achieving quality in 
the finished product. 



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more, even the weather plays a 
part in the manufacture of paper. 
Dry days and humid days, hot 
days and cold, all mean a vari- 
ation in treatment, a variation 
which may happen at any time in 
the process. Eternal vigilance is 
necessary in order to prevent 
variation in the quality of the 
finished product. Thus in the 
case of Systems Bond no sheet 
of paper bearing that impress is 
allowed to go forth from the 
mill without undergoing frequent 
rigid tests. 

It is a question of knowledge and 
craftsmanship, from the very be- 
ginning. Improved craftsmanship 
and manufacturing methods have 
gone hand in hand with better 
materials.. In due time, various 
patents on the invention of wood- 
pulp paper were granted, and be- 
fore the end of the nineteenth 
century wood-pulp took the lead 
in making an ever-increasing sup- 
ply of printing paper, but for fine 



grades of writing paper a combi- 
nation of rag pulp with the 
wood-pulp is absolutely essential. 

TWO ADVANTAGES OF 

WATER-POWER 

In the United States the manu- 
facture of paper from wood-pulp 
began in 1867. As the years passed 
the rapid increase in the use of 
wood-pulp shifted the center of 
the paper industry to the forest 
districts of New York and New 
England. These favored regions 
furnish sufficient spruce wood to 
manufacture three-fifths of the 
wood-pulp used in this country. 
Another factor, too, contributed 
to the transfer: namely, water- 
power. So important is the rela- 
tionship of water-power to paper 
— not only in reducing the cost of 
transportation of logs, but also in 
actual use at the mills — that in the 
United States more than sixty per 
cent of the water-power utilization 
is devoted to paper manufacture. 




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MAINE AN IDEAL STATE FOR 
PAPER MANUFACTURE 

The combination of water-power 
and large tracts of spruce land 
makes the states of northern New 
England and New York the great- 
est paper-manufacturing district 
in the United States. Maine, in 
which state the Eastern Manu- 
facturing Company has its mills 
at Bangor and at Lincoln, is an 
important paper-making state, be- 
cause of its generous wood sup- 
ply, its wide-spread water-power, 
its abundance of skilled labor, and 
its nearness to population centers 
and points of rag import. 

Before the world war, large 
quantities of pulp were imported 
from Norway and Sweden and 
were sold in competition with the 
product of the American mills. 
The Eastern Manufacturing Com- 
pany, however, gets its supply of 
raw material for making sulphite 
pulp direct from the forests of 
northern Maine, principally from 



its own timber-lands and from 
the timber-lands held in the name 
of the Lincoln Pulpwood Com- 
pany, owned by it, consisting of 
thousands of acres. In addition, 
the Eastern Manufacturing Com- 
pany holds many thousands of 
acres on lease. The cuttings are 
almost entirely of spruce. The 
trees are felled principally during 
the winter and spring. A large 
part of the trees cut during the 
spring, when the sap is running, 
are peeled before being cut into 
four-foot lengths; the pulp-wood 
is then known as peeled wood. 
Logs of similar length, cut at 
other seasons of the year and not 
peeled, are called rough wood. 

THE VOYAGE OF THE PULP- 
WOOD 

In the spring, this pulp-wood, 
clearly marked, is set adrift in the 
many rapid streams that vein the 
state, and is driven into a holding 
boom, a structure of larger logs 




c*[ll]£> 



chained together to hold thou- 
sands of cords of the four-foot 
logs. From this boom it is driven 
down the main Penobscot River 
and put in storage at the mill at 
Lincoln, or floated still farther 
down the river to the mill at Ban- 
gor. Additional pulp-wood, cut 
on land holdings on water-sheds 
other than the Penobscot, is 
brought to the Bangor mill in 
car-loads. 

After being taken from the 
river, the four-foot logs, fresh and 
clean, are conveyed to huge stor- 
age piles, occupying a very large 
area and representing thousands 
of tons of potential pulp. From 
these storage piles the logs, as 
needed, are conveyed to the pulp- 
mill and, in a large revolving 
drum, are tumbled against one 
another until the bark is removed. 
The barked wood and peeled 
wood are for convenience put 
into the drum together and both 
go on to the next process, which 



is washing under high-pressure 
showers and in tanks of hot water. 
Thus stripped of their bark, the 
logs are carried along on an end- 
less-chain conveyer and dropped, 
one by one, in swift succession, 
down an inclined trough into 
chippers: very heavy, rapidly re- 
volving steel discs, each set with 
three radial knives which, with a 
slicing motion, cut the log into 
small pieces or chips. Out of these 
machines come the chips on a con- 
veyer of another type: a shaking, 
sifting wire screen through which 
chips of the right size fall on to a 
belt, leaving on the screen itself 
those that are too large and have 
to be re-chipped. In vast hoppers, 
above enormous steel tanks called 
digesters, the chips are stored in 
sufficient quantity to supply the 
mill's demand several days. 

WHERE THE CHIPS ARE COOKED 

The digester is an upright cylin- 
drical boiler forty-two feet high 




c*[12]£> 




TEARa pieceof paper jagged- 
wise. You will see that it 
is made up of innumerable 
fibers side by side. The strength 
of the paper depends in part on 
how uniformly even in length 
and thickness the many pulp 
fibers are. The knives in the 
Jordan Refiner achieve the right 
degree of uniformity. 



cHPte 



and fifteen feet in diameter, riveted 
into one piece and lined with 
acid-proof brick. The chips from 
about sixteen cords of wood are 
dropped into a digester, contain- 
ing sulphurous acid in which they 
are to be cooked, the heat being 
supplied by means of live steam 
admitted into the digesters. The 
temperature is gradually increased 
and the desired degree maintained 
from eight to sixteen hours, the 
length of cooking and intensity 
of heat being varied according 
to the quality of pulp desired. 
Absolute uniformity of pulp is 
essential. Automatic recording in- 
struments reflect conditions with- 
in the digester and the "cook," 
by constant vigilance and correct 
manipulation of the controls, pro- 
duces the uniformity and quality 
which are, to almost ninety per 
cent, the determining factors in 
the finished sheet of Systems 
Bond. This relation between 
quality of pulp and the quality, as 



well as uniformity, of the finished 
sheet of Systems Bond empha- 
sizes the Eastern Manufacturing 
Company's advantage in having 
absolute control of its pulp. 

After correct cooking for the 
purpose required, the contents of 
the digester are blown into one 
of a series of washing tanks, com- 
monly called "blow-tubs," with 
perforated false bottoms where the 
cooking liquor is drained off and 
the pulp given thorough washing. 

Before being bleached, the 
washed pulp must first pass 
through the screening process. 

SCREENING 

The screens consist of long 
wooden cradles having bottoms 
of brass plates in which are in- 
numerable slots less than winch 
wide. A light, continuous suction 
is maintained beneath the plates 
by diaphragms, a suction which 
causes the fine pulp to flow 
through the slots, while the 




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coarser particles and dirt remain 
on top of the plates and are car- 
ried away into a sewer. Through 
the screen the pulp flows into a 
tank underneath, from which it 
is pumped to a thickener. 

As its name suggests, the pur- 
pose of this machine is to thicken 
the pulp by reducing the volume 
of water in it. The thickener is a 
hollow cylinder covered with fine 
wire cloth. As it slowly revolves 
over a vat filled with loose, wet 
pulp, it picks up a film of pulp, 
the water running off through 
the wire into a trough alongside. 
Reaching the top of each revolu- 
tion of the cylinder, the film of 
pulp passes under a "couch roll" 
covered with woolen felt ; this roll, 
resting on the cylinder with a gen- 
tle pressure, squeezes still more 
water out of the pulp and lifts it off 
the face of the wire cloth. Presently 
it is scraped off the couch roll 
and delivered through big pipes 
to the bleaching tanks below. 



BLEACHING THE PULP BY THE 
BELLMER PROCESS 

The bleaching tanks are in the 
new Bellmer plant of the Eastern 
Manufacturing Company, operat- 
ed in conjunction with its own 
electro-chemical plant. As the 
necessity of bleaching pulp per- 
fectly white without sacrificing 
strength of the fibers is an ever- 
present problem in paper-making, 
the combination of these two 
plants is especially fortunate; it 
not only reduces the cost of 
bleaching, but also makes it 
possible to minimize the quantity 
of bleach and thereby to conserve 
the actual strength of the pulp. 

The bleacher is a big, white-tiled 
tank about forty-five feet long, 
divided by two shorter partitions 
or "mid-feathers." At one end, 
and forming part of the tank, 
is the Bellmer screw propeller, 
named for its inventor, which 
circulates the pulp through the 
tank and mixes it with a sufficient 




<*[15]£> 



amount of steam and electrolytic 
bleach liquor. The pulp circu- 
lates slowly around the tiled tank 
under careful temperature con- 
trol and when the bleaching is 
completed is dropped down into 
vats floored with perforated tile, 
where it is drained and thorough- 
ly washed, in order to remove 
all traces of chlorine that may 
remain. After the showers of fil- 
tered water have been turned off 
and the pulp allowed to drain for 
a while, it is stirred and diluted 
by a heavy stream of cold water 
from a hose, so that the milk- 
white mass will flow through 
pipes to other thickeners which 
deliver the pulp at a constant 
density to the stock chest in order 
that a uniform sheet of pulp may 
be secured on the pulp machines. 
These pulp sheets of uniform 
moisture content make possible 
absolute exactness in the use of 
raw material in the paper mill. 
This is largely responsible for 



the constantly uniform quality of 
Systems Bond. 

FIRST STEPS IN THE PREPA- 
RATION OF RAGS 

The rags for the manufacture of 
Systems Bond are received in car- 
load lots from the large rag mar- 
kets of America or imported from 
abroad. On arrival at the mill, 
the compressed bales are cut open 
and the rags fed into a thrasher, 
where they are separated from one 
another and thoroughly dusted. 
After a few minutes of this 
treatment the rags go to the sort- 
ing room, where they are sorted by 
hand into different grades, accord- 
ing to their quality. This opera- 
tion is done by women who 
stand before long tables to each 
one of which a knife is fastened. 
With this knife the sorter opens 
seams and cuts off buttons, hooks 
and eyes and rubber. This done, 
the rags are again inspected by 
other women, "overlookers," 




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THE transmutation of pulp 
into paper occurs at the 
paper -making machine. 
But the quality of the finished 
product depends directly on the 
quality of the pulp ingredients — 
hence the advantage of combin- 
ing pulp and paper making. 



<*[17]£> 



from whose hands they pass 
to the cutters: machines which 
quickly chop them into small 
pieces. 

The cut or shredded rags are 
analogous to the chips in the sul- 
phite mill, and, in fact, the re- 
mainder of the process of produc- 
ing rag pulp is very similar. The 
"digesters" in the sulphite mill 
are known as "boilers" in the rag 
mill, and into these the rags are 
put with lime, and occasionally 
soda ash. Steam is admitted and 
the cooking is carried on for about 
ten hours. The cooked rags are 
washed and bleached as is the 
pulp, and dropped into similar 
drainers. At this point the rag 
pulp, commonly referred to as 
"half stock," is very similar in 
appearance to the sulphite pulp, 
except for the longer fiber and 
greater strength of the former. 
In fact, the difference is wholly 
mechanical as chemically both 
are the same pure cellulose. 



MEETING OF THE TWO PULP 
STREAMS— RAG AND SULPHITE 

Now comes one of the most 
important processes in the manu- 
facture of high-grade paper: the 
beating process, by which the 
minute fibers in the two kinds of 
pulp are united and blended into 
a soft, white, silky mass. The 
engine which performs this opera- 
tion is a tub about twenty feet 
long with oval ends. The stock 
circulates around the mid-feather, 
or partition, in the centre and 
each time passes between the bed 
plate and beater roll, the latter 
about fifty-two inches long and 
about the same diameter. Steel 
bars parallel to the axis of the roll 
are set into its periphery about 
two inches apart. The bed plate 
is set into the bottom of the tub 
immediately below this beater 
roll, and it is the adjustment of 
the distance between the bars and 
the bed plate that determines the 
strength, formation and general 




c*[18]£> 



characteristics of the paper that 
can be made with a given stock, 
as well as the clearness of the 
water-mark. Thus the beaters 
reduce the fibers to the condition 
in which, later, they will inter- 
weave on the moving wire cloth 
of the paper machine. After a cer- 
tain number of hours, alum and 
rosin sizing are added to the stock 
in -the beaters, to make the sub- 
stance impervious to ink. Such is 
the process which forms the basic 
substance of each crisp, strong, 
crackling sheet of Systems Bond. 
From the beaters the stock is 
dumped into large round wooden 
chests, from which it is pumped to 
the refining engine called the Jor- 
dan refiner: a stationary hollow 
cone with knives on the inside, 
fitting over a solid revolving cone 
mounted with similar knives on 
the outside. The pulp is circulated 
rapidly between these two sets of 
knives, which can be brought 
close together with great accuracy, 



so that the degree of fineness of 
the fibers can be adjusted and 
kept uniform. In this operation 
it is essential to maintain the same 
control as in the beaters. 

From the refiner it goes into 
another storage chest, called the 
machine chest, equipped with a 
heavy vertical shaft set with long 
wooden arms ; the shaft revolves 
slowly, keeping the stock con- 
stantly stirred. The machine 
chest holds the reserve stock for 
the paper machine. From there 
the stock goes to the stuff box, 
where the first step in the forma- 
tion of the sheet of paper is taken. 

PAPER AT LAST 

Through a gate in the stuff box, 
susceptible of delicate adjustment, 
which will be referred to later in 
connection with the weight and 
thickness of the paper, the stock, 
which is about 99% water, flows 
through traps and screens, which 
remove all extraneous matter, on 




<3C9]£> 



to the Fourdrinier wire, where for 
the first time there is apparent 
a resemblance to a sheet of paper. 

The wire cloth, in the form of 
an endless belt varying in width 
from sixty inches or less on old 
machines, to over two hundred 
inches on modern machines for 
the manufacture of newsprint, 
and from thirty to one hundred 
feet long, is supported on small 
tube rolls. On to this almost level 
surface a certain volume of stock 
and water flows, the amount ex- 
actly controlled by the adjustable 
gate of the stuff box just referred 
to. It is this certain volume in 
relation to the speed at which the 
wire is running which determines 
the weight and the thickness. 

As the stock and water are car- 
ried along by the wire, the water 
gradually drains through the wire 
cloth and a lateral shake, com- 
bined with the forward motion, 
interweaves the fibers so that at 
the point where there is no longer 



sufficient water to allow agitation, 
the sheet is entirely formed, but 
in a damp, impressionable state. 

THE TELLTALE WATER-MARK 

At this point it is run under a 
cylinder called the "dandy roll" 
which, instead of being plain, 
bears on its surface the raised de- 
sign of the Systems Bond water- 
mark. This presses itself into the 
soft damp surface of the web, so 
that the design, after the paper 
hardens, remains in its texture as 
a semi-transparent character, the 
ineradicable impress of Systems 
Bond— the identifying insignia of 
its rank. If Systems Bond does its 
work, preserves its thoroughbred 
character, withstands the inroads 
of time without crumpling or dis- 
coloring in the files, there is the 
mark by which it can be known. 
On the other hand, should Sys- 
tems Bond fail in any of these 
things, there again is the telltale 
water-mark — clear, indelible, per- 




c*[20]£> 



THE seasoning of writing 
paper, like the seasoning 
of timber, takes time — it 
is essentially a natural process. 
Genuine loft-drying results in 
toughened fibers and a crisp tex- 
ture that delights both the eye 
and the sense of touch. 



c*[21]£> 



manent as the sheet itself. For the 
water-mark of Systems Bond is no 
surface design, printed, stamped 
or engraved. It is ingrained in the 
very texture of the paper itself, 
even as the veins in a block of 
marble or the concentric rings of 
the severed spruce. 

THE SLOW WAY TO SEASON, 
BUT THE BEST 

As the wire turns down, taking 
the course of the lower part of 
the belt, the web of paper passes 
on to endless belts made of ma- 
terials similar to blankets, called 
paper-machine felts, which carry 
the paper through press rolls 
where some water is squeezed 
out, and over revolving cylinders 
heated by steam, between which 
the remaining moisture evapo- 
rates. The cylinders vary in num- 
ber approximately from fifteen to 
fifty. A modern paper machine 
in a writing-paper mill is from 
100 to 120 inches wide, the total 



length from stuff box to dry end 
being about 200 feet. When 
ready to run, it represents a cost, 
in normal times, of something 
over $100,000. 

All the usual grades of paper 
go through the initial stage of 
drying, and in the case of ma- 
chine-dried paper, which is not 
tub-sized, this is the only stage of 
drying ; but the higher grades of 
paper go through a size bath and 
a second stage of drying. 

Tub-sizing consists of running 
the paper into a hot bath of glue, 
starch or starch and glue, which 
increases the strength and im- 
proves the appearance and "feel." 

At this point comes the second 
stage of drying, which may be any 
one of three methods: Machine- 
drying, Air-drying and Loft-dry- 
ing. The machine-drying method 
is identical with the process of 
drying before tub sizing. This is 
a quick method, taking but a 
minute or less, but as the dry- 




c*[22]£> 



ing is done under tension the 
paper thus made has less strength 
than paper which is not dried 
under tension. 

Air-dried paper is dried in the 
web, but instead of going over 
steam-heated cylinders hot air is 
blown on to the paper to absorb 
the moisture. This process takes 
ten to thirty minutes, and the re- 
sulting product is distinctly better 
than machine-dried paper. 

Paper to be loft-dried is cut into 
sheets, after coming out of the size 
tub. These sheets are hung over 
poles in a room where slowly- 
raised temperature gradually ab- 
sorbs the moisture from the 
paper, the moist air being slowly 
drawn from the room, and fresh 
air allowed to enter. Under this 
method the size is allowed a longer 
time, twenty-four to sixty hours, 
to season into the paper, which, 
combined with the entire lack of 
tension, allows the sheet to shrink 
normally. It is this slow process, 



combined with standard sulphite 
of the Eastern Manufacturing 
Company's own making and its 
rag content, that makes Systems 
Bond good for all purposes, at 
a price not too high for any. 

After the seasoning come the 
"finishing" operations. Machine- 
and air-dried papers are "finished" 
in reels by running through chilled 
iron rolls, — the former while it is 
still on the paper machine, and 
the latter on the air-drying ma- 
chine. Both are sometimes super- 
calendered by running through a 
combination of paper and chilled 
iron rolls. 

Loft-dried paper, on the other 
hand, comes from the loft in sheets, 
to be finished on "sheet-calen- 
ders." There are three usual fin- 
ishes. "Bond" is obtained by 
running the sheets through iron 
or cotton roll breakers. "Ledger" 
is the result of a combination of 
iron and cotton rolls. "Superfine," 
used mostly on flats, is ob- 




<303]£> 



tained with iron and paper rolls. 

It is this sheet-finishing, in con- 
junction with loft-drying, which 
gives the "cockle" or "class" to 
the finish of Systems Bond. 

After finishing, every sheet of 
Systems Bond is carefully hand- 
sorted, trimmed, sealed, labeled, 
packed and shipped. 

INSPECTION 

Constantly during the making 
and finishing of Systems Bond 
samples must be taken and in- 
spected. An entirely separate de- 
partment for this work not only 
compares the strength, color, for- 
mation and finish of each lot 
of paper with rigid standards, 
but keeps careful records of all 
results, continually striving to 
produce the best possible sheet 
of Systems Bond. 

Just as every process through 
which the paper passes in its cre- 
ation, from the first to the last, 
must be carefully and skilfully 



performed, so with the finished 
product. The crisp, strong sheets 
of Systems Bond that please the 
eye and feel good in the hand and 
satisfy the self-respect of those who 
use them day by day must pass 
muster before they are allowed 
to leave the mill. Any speckled, 
spotted, wrinkled or damaged 
sheets — in fact, any sheets that 
show variation from standard 
quality, are promptly banned, 
properly sentenced to the discard. 
All the others, those which pass 
this strict final examination by 
experts, are rightly considered to 
have reached the highest degree 
of quality, and, therefore, can be 
relied upon at all times to give 
uniform service and satisfaction. 
Systems Bond is the first nation- 
ally distributed paper to fill the 
gap between those bonds made 
entirely of sulphite pulp and those 
which are too costly for the care- 
ful buyer who must consider 
economy as well as quality. 




c*[24]*3 




THE final inspection of 
Systems Bond, sheet by- 
sheet, is the last step which 
proves all the other steps were 
right. Besides the inspection for 
spotted or damaged sheets, the 
paper is tested for strength, dur- 
ability, texture, bulk, and colors 
— and variation from standard 
means rejection. This assures uni- 
form quality in every sheet that 
leaves the mill. 



cM25]£> 



SOME FACTS ABOUT THE 
EASTERN MANUFACTURING COMPANY 



Established and incorporated- 



Acreage of timberland owned — 
220,000. Additional acreage con- 
trolled— 50,000. 

Ground area of plants — 11 acres. 
Floor area — 19 acres. 

Steam-power load— 4000 H. P. 
Hydro-electric— 3800 H. P. 

Annual production of pulp— 
38,000 tons. 

Annual production of paper — 
24,000 tons. 

Average number of employees 
(including mill and woods) — 
2800. Labor conditions stable. 
There is an active Employees' 



Athletic Association numbering 
five hundred and fifty members. 

The company controls not only 
the processes of manufacturing 
paper, but also the processes of 
manufacturing pulp — a combina- 
tion which allows perfect stand- 
ardization of quality. 

The company owns its own rag 
mill. In its chemical plant it 
manufactures the electrolytic 
bleach liquor used in the bleach- 
ing of the pulp. This, of course, 
gives it absolute control of the 
proportions of the ingredients 
used in the liquor, and assures 
just the exact strength of bleach 
which will do the work without 
harming the pulp fibers. 



AlIfftMf&lKI 




c}[26]£> 



BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

S. W. WEBB Chairman of the Board 



F. R. AYER 

F. W. AYER 

G. E. KEITH 
H. C. KEITH 



C. B. WIGGIN 
C. F. FAIRBANKS 
ALBERT BOYDEN 
H. W. CUSHMAN 



OFFICERS 

S. W. WEBB Chairman 
F. R. AYER President 



F. A. LEAHY Vice-President 
H. J. GUILD Vice-President 
S. B. COPELAND Vice-President 
D. A. CROCKER Vice-President 



B. M. PETRIE Vice-President 
GEO. E. HYDE Secretary and Treasurer 
A. D. POMEROY Assistant Treasurer 
ALBERT BOYDEN Assistant Secretary 



EASTERN MANUFACTURING COMPANY 

GENERAL SALES OFFICES 
501 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY 



Mills: 
Bangor, Maine 
Lincoln, Maine 



Western Sales Offiee : 

1223 Conway Bldg. 

Chicago, 111. 




c*[27]£> 





EASTERN MANUFACTURING COMPANY 



Mills: 
Bangor, Maine 
Lincoln, Maine 



GENERAL SALES OFFICES 
501 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY 



Western Sales Office : 

1223 Conway Bldg. 

Chicago, 111. 



c*[28 ]£> 



